January is an interesting month....The holidays are over, the money is gone, the days are dark and kinda dreary, and every January I get the "blahs". I start yearning for a trip or a new piece of furniture to fill the empty space created when the Christmas tree came down. But, because the money (and excuse to spend) left with Christmas, it just cannot be.
For the past 4 years (and I'm NOT even joking!), I have wanted to paint the kitchen. I even had paint tape up last year...and it stayed up for almost 3 months before I got irritated and pulled it back down. It was just becoming a painful daily reminder that painting the kitchen was not going to happen anytime soon.
This year for Christmas, my awesome kids gave me a wonderful gift....a roll of paint tape, a brush and A GIFT CARD TO HOME DEPOT!!! As soon as the tree came down and the boxes made it back to the garage, my card and I headed to get paint chips to post on the wall. Of course, when the last coat of paint was 15 years ago, there's a lot to do before dipping the roller....OH! The deciding on colors, the drywall and spackle...the sanding and the basic re mudding... it was ridiculous! It's amazing the damage that 6 kids and all their friends can inflict. And of course, once you have the putty knife and drywall mud in hand....you just simply MUST fix that wall in the family room and entry...That hole that caused me such stress a few months ago in the middle of the entry wall? Gone! The gauge down the stairs from the vacuum attachment?...No longer a problem!..Remember when the towel rod pulled out of the kids bathroom? Repaired!...The hole cut in my bathroom to repair the plumbing?...Finally fixed...
I found all kinds of treasures....apparently one day someone was lying down in the hallway and decided they needed to write "hello!"...why? who would EVEN know? I found that one quite by accident, it's gone now without anyone fessing up to that little salutation.
I walked through the house 2 weeks ago and realized that in EVERY SINGLE room there was either a wall or a ceiling with a patch of drywall mud repairing some damage. It's kind of sad how you just get used to it and let it go for so long. I also find it kind of humorous that a wall or door that I think needs to be washed, somehow just seems easier to paint with a brush in hand and a roller at the ready. (Should I admit that I don't wash walls before painting?? Oh well....I don't! It's out there now....
Well....this weekend after prepping and prepping and prepping the painting has finally begun! The kitchen is a warm, inviting shade of mustardy yellow...."gray poupon" is what the kids call it. None of them can decide if they like it or not...doesn't matter too much to me 'cause I LOVE it! The entry and hall have been re-fauxed and I'm ready to start on the mudroom and downstairs bathroom. Fortunately, there is leftover paint to repaint the kids bathroom next and to touch up a few other areas.
There are so many colors on my jeans that I've started referring to them as my "pallette pants". Each splatter of color that joins in takes me one step closer to getting out of "Blah-ville". It makes me happy!!
So...The Painting Princess moves on from room to room , whistling while she washes walls in her own little way and making a list of things she hopes to get for her birthday; feeling less like a damsel in distress with every passing January day.
